Syria has annulled its investment agreement with Russia in Tartus due to the inability of the Russian company to fulfill its contractual obligations, according to Alexei Chepa, the First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee. Chepa emphasized that this decision is entirely unrelated to Russian military bases in Syria.
Chepa attributed the collapse of the agreement to Moscow’s assumption of responsibility for civilian maintenance at the port. However, with a sharp reduction in Moscow’s presence, fulfilling these obligations has become increasingly difficult. He reiterated that this matter should not be linked to Russia’s military bases, as the two are distinctly separate issues.
Riad Joudi, Director of Tartus Customs, issued a decree canceling the agreement with the Russian company managing the port. In his announcement, Joudi stated that the port’s revenues will now revert to the Syrian treasury. Additionally, port employees will be reinstated, outdated machinery will be rehabilitated, and facilities and equipment will be upgraded to ensure operational efficiency.
The original agreement, signed in 2019 by the Russian company Stroytransgaz and Syria’s former regime, granted the company a 49-year investment in the Tartous commercial port, with an automatic 25-year extension unless one of the parties objected. At the time, the agreement appeared to align with Russia’s military presence at the adjacent Tartous naval base.
Under the contract, the Russian company committed to investing approximately $500 million to develop the port’s infrastructure and operational capacity. However, it later became evident that the company failed to meet its contractual obligations. The new authorities confirmed that the port’s infrastructure remained largely unchanged, likely prompting the decision to terminate the contract.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat, a Russian diplomatic source described the Syrian leadership’s decision as inevitable and indicated that it may extend to all projects in Syria that were signed under the guise of government-to-government agreements. In reality, these projects were often managed by private companies linked to figures close to the Assad family.
The source disclosed that the Russian company involved in the Tartous port agreement was partially owned by the Al-Qaterji Group, whose leader, Mohammad Baraa Al-Qaterji, was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Lebanese border last year. Al-Qaterji reportedly managed several companies on behalf of Bashar al-Assad, who personally endorsed the Tartous investment agreement in Syria’s People’s Assembly.
The source added that the termination of the agreement reflects a logical stance against private companies that failed to deliver on their commitments and were associated with corruption under the previous regime. This decision, however, does not negatively impact Russian-Syrian relations.
The source also noted that given pressing issues in Russian-Syrian relations, a high-level Russian delegation is likely to visit Damascus in the near future. Discussions regarding the timing and arrangements for this visit are currently underway.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
